China Through the Backdoor

Today we took a short day trip to Chaozhou ("chow-joe" if you don't read pinyin). We took a bus to the Shantou TV tower, and then got a taxi to Chaozhou. I had written the characters for the Guangzi Bridge, where we planned to go first. The taxi driver knew where it was, so we were off down the road to Chaozhou, avoiding about 100 near-accidents on the way, with Dad in the front, and the girls in the back. The driver was from Sichuan province, and I had initially established myself as "someone who speaks Putonghua," so he asked a few questions, and I asked him some questions, but I didn't understand him most of the time. He dropped us off at the bridge, which happened to be right next to the old city wall. We walked around looking at the water and the wall, enjoying the bridge from the sidelines, since they charge admission.

After that it was time for lunch. I knew that there was a vegetarian restaurant near the temple. We have the sister restaurant near the waterfront in Shantou, where I have been once before. I asked if it was near the temple, and the petty cab drivers were eager to take us there for 10 kuai (just over $1) per cab. So we hopped on.


The vegetarian restaurant is the place where people eat before or visiting the temple. The food is vegetarian because strict Buddhists technically shouldn't eat meat, drink beer, or eat spicy food. I couldn't read the menu, but luckily they had set meals. Since the whole restaurant never serves meat, a set meal was a pretty safe option. They make food that tastes like meat, but it's actually texturized vegetable protein (TVP) and tofu. Our meal included winter melon soup, sweet and sour vegetable purses, seafood cutlets on skewers, and a few other mixed dishes with veggies and TVP meat. Most of the dishes were great, so it was another successful dining experience. (Check out my mom using chopsticks! That's not just for show--she's actually holding something in the pic and using them to eat.)


After the meal, we went to Kaiyuan Temple. The tourism websites say it's one of only four temples of the same style in China. It's a temple that is still in use, so the visitors navigate around the corridors amongst the people who are there burning incense and praying. Some parts are closed off to visitors, especially the monks' quarters, from which we could hear monks chanting this afternoon. There are the usual Buddhist statues and Arhats inside the various parts of the temple. There is also a portion dedicated to GuanYin, who is the Buddhist goddess of mercy. The carved statue of GuanYin inside the temple is about 20 feet high, and has 1,000 arms, 1,000 eyes (one painted on each hand), and a face on each of her four sides. Pictures can be taken outside the elaborately decorated temple that houses this statue, but not of the statue itself.


In the afternoon we got a cab back to the university. The cab driver was creative and took us on a dusty road, presumably to avoid traffic in the city. In the end, I think my parents liked Chaozhou, and everything went pretty smoothly, but they still aren't used to the traffic in China.

-吴佩芙